Greatness blew through town 40 years ago at the Golden Gloves

LOWELL -- Rocco Marchegiano -- before he became Rocky Marciano -- won a New England Golden Gloves title here in 1948.

And 16-year-old Mike Tyson -- before he became a freak show -- stormed through Lowell Memorial Auditorium in 42 ferocious seconds in 1983.

Sneak peeks at future heavyweight champions of the world, right in our great fight town.

Part of the lore, and allure, of the Golden Gloves.

"It's just like the Spinners. You see some future stars come through," suggests Bobby Russo, 58, a trainer and boxing promoter from Portland, Maine, who is in his third year as executive director of the New England Golden Gloves.

Russo learned at an early age to closely watch every punch. At 10 he was in the fifth row at the Central Maine Youth Center in Lewiston when Muhammad Ali knocked out of Sonny Liston in the first round (Russo's uncle was the boxing commissioner in Maine). Now he watches from ringside at the Lowell Memorial Auditorium -- even on nights when local novices are flailing away -- looking for that spark of boxing skill that might have people telling stories someday.

"I saw a kid tonight, just a novice. But you see the head movement and some natural ability," Russo was saying during a recent Gloves show.

A spark of promise.

For sparks, nothing matches March of 1973. It was probably the most athletic greatness ever in Lowell at one time. Only the greatness was in the future.

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Nobody knew for certain what would become of Ray Leonard, Marvin Hagler, Aaron Pryor, and Leon and Michael Spinks.

But all became famous world champions (Leonard and the Spinks brothers also became Olympic gold medalists).

Leonard, Hagler and Pryor, in fact, became all-time great champions.

They were among more than 300 amateur boxers competing in the National Golden Gloves Tournament of Champions 40 years ago at the Auditorium. At least seven of those who fought in that tournament became world champions (Hilmer Kenty and Art Frias joining the aforementioned famous).

"I was here in '73 as a spectator," says Jack O'Neil, a trainer at Lowell's West End Gym. "I was a kid. I was boxing for Mr. (Arthur) Ramalho back then. We all knew Hagler because he was from around here (out of Brockton, fighting for the Lowell team). But the general public didn't realize how good he was or what he would attain."

An 18-year-old Hagler, his head already shaved, lost in the 156-pound national semifinal to Dale Grant, half-brother of 1972 Olympic gold medalist Sugar Ray Seales.

"I worked Hagler's corner when he got beat. Hagler came on too late. Had a big third round. But came on too late," remembers Arthur Ramalho, 77, the owner of the West End Gym, who is boxing in Lowell. "Then he turned around, went up a class (to 165 pounds), went to the AAUs (six weeks later in Boston) and walked right through it," adds Ramalho.

A week after that impressive AAU triumph, Hagler turned pro, pocketing $40 for knocking out Terry Ryan in the second round at Brockton High School. The future middleweight champion of the world had left Lowell without a national title -- but with an enduring nickname. "Marvelous" was bestowed on Hagler here during the 1973 Golden Gloves tournament by The Sun's Rick Harrison. Nine years later, Hagler would have "Marvelous" legally attached to his name.

Of the future world champions in Lowell in 1973, only Leonard from Palmer Park, Md., won a national title here. The talkative 16-year-old's "million-dollar smile" was the subject of a story in The Sun. "I psyche my opponents out by smiling at them," said Leonard, who would soon become Sugar Ray. "They don't know what to make of it."

In the 132-pound final at the Auditorium, Leonard out-pointed Hilmer Kenty, no slouch himself. Seven years later Kenty became the first world champion out of Emanuel Steward's Kronk Gym in Detroit when he stopped Ernesto Espana in the ninth round of their WBA lightweight title bout.

"Leonard came in here with a good reputation. Everybody was already talking about him back then," says Chaz Scoggins, who covered the tournament for The Sun.

Boxing's Golden Age

Leonard, Hagler and Pryor would become prime attractions during boxing's last great Golden Age -- the 1980s. "Popular eras are driven by those types of boxers," says Russo. "We need that to get a shot in the arm for boxing. We're never going away. We're going to have some highs and lows. But I think it's a sport a lot of people relate to because of the struggles these kids come from."

Of course, the national tournament, which Lowell hosted again in 1995 (not as memorable a crop as '73), is more likely to feature boxers who go on to greatness. Still, Marciano, Hagler and Tyson are famous future champs who fought here during the New England Tournament.

And even the Greater Lowell Tournament has been elevated by the warrior spirit of Micky Ward, who inspires hopes and dreams and great boxing movies yet to be made. Ward from Lowell, a future WBU light welterweight champ, was a three-time New England Golden Gloves champ. Yet on the same night Tyson won the 1983 New England heavyweight title (his opponent, Jim Rayborn, withdrew with a knee injury that probably hurt a lot more after Tyson ripped through his semifinal opponent, Jim Bisson, in 42 seconds) Ward lost Rafael Matos in the 132-pound final.

"But Micky never got discouraged by a loss," says Joe Aliot of Billerica, who was an eight-time New England champ, and the "Outstanding Boxer" of that 1983 New England Tournament. "Micky was always a tough kid. But he wasn't always the champion or the toughest. But look what happened to him later on."

The pro game better suited Ward's indestructibility.

Aliot, 50, started his own roofing business. He never turned pro. He suggests you never really can tell who will be the boxer someday played by Mark Wahlberg.

His impressions of future champ Tyson's 42 seconds of boxing in Lowell?

"He wasn't anybody then," says Aliot, the 126-pound New England champ that year. "He was just another tough guy from New York. So what?"

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